11 January 2010

Homeless Women Find Room In Dallas Apartments

The Dallas News

The walls are bare. The closets, nearly empty. And there's barely any furniture inside.

But for 40 formerly homeless women, the Pebbles Apartments are home sweet home.The Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, which coordinates area homeless services, opened Dallas' first permanent supportive housing program for homeless women and children there last month. A full-time caseworker helps tenants with things such as medical care and job searches.

The homeless alliance, one of 24 nonprofits that receive donations through The Dallas Morning News Charities, moved the women from Dallas' homeless assistance center, The Bridge.

The residents come from a variety of backgrounds. But they all lacked what the Pebbles complex offers: the stability of a home.

Lawanna Rogers, who moved in last month, had lost homes, jobs and the ability to care for her children because of her longtime addiction to a drug she now calls "Satan." She said she had resorted to theft and prostitution to support her addiction to crack cocaine.

"It took my life for over 20 years," said Rogers, 41, who was incarcerated last year on a drug possession charge. "By the grace of God, I'm still here."

She has gone through drug treatment and hopes to find work and reconnect with her family. Relatives have raised her daughter, 18, and son, 9, because Rogers said she "chose drugs over [her] children."

"The night before I went into labor, I did $300 worth of dope," she said, referring to her pregnancy with her daughter. "I was praying at the same time. I said, 'Please don't let anything happen to my baby because of my stupidity, but I can't put this drug down.' "

Rogers said she stays in touch with her kids, who are doing well.

Last summer, the Denton woman decided she'd had enough. And in five months, she went from a mat at The Bridge to a bed in a cubicle there to her own apartment.

While Rogers jumped at the chance for a home, neighbor Candice Kratson was hesitant.

Kratson, 50, worried about living on her own, something she had not done in many years. After a month in her apartment, Kratson, who's disabled with bipolar and schizoaffective disorders, said she is adjusting.

She said she was relieved to be away from what she called an abusive situation at a place where she used to live.

"I've settled in quite a bit," she said recently as she rested on her couch and watched a TV placed on the floor. "There's not too many people who will set you up with an apartment like this."

Dallas officials consider housing programs like the Pebbles the solution to homelessness. The city has a goal of opening 700 units of permanent supportive housing by 2014 but has faced neighborhood opposition to several proposals.

Before opening the Pebbles, homeless alliance officials met with community leaders to gain neighborhood support, said Mike Faenza, president and chief executive officer of the group. The project, which used to be a public housing site, sits in Vickery Meadows, next to other apartment complexes and a strip mall.

Faenza said the homeless alliance could not have opened the program without help from the Dallas Housing Authority, which owns the property. The housing authority leased the building to the homeless alliance for $1 a year, said MaryAnn Russ, DHA president and chief executive officer.

"To have a permanent supportive housing complex focused on vulnerable women and children is a great thing," Faenza said. "The moms and individual women are really grateful to be there."

No one may be more thankful than Rogers' daughter, Tanisha. The 18-year-old recently got to visit her mother at her apartment.

The high school student, who was raised by her grandparents, said she has hoped for years that her mother would change. She was skeptical when her mother headed to Dallas for help last summer.

But the teenager said she cried when she found out her mother was doing well enough to move into Dallas apartments.

"I'm very happy for her because she's been a drug addict for a long time. I hadn't given up on her, but I was beginning to doubt that she would change," Tanisha Rogers said.